


Rescue

by hakura0



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-16
Updated: 2012-05-16
Packaged: 2017-11-05 12:13:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/406291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hakura0/pseuds/hakura0
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve Rogers is found, and woken up, in time to volunteer for a mission to rescue his old friend Howard Stark's son. But there is a difference between rescuing someone, and saving them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rescue

It's not a matter of insurance, really. It's a matter of someone over enemy lines showing up on the news, of restlessness and of feeling useful and outdated. His shield still works against the guns though, and there is something familiar that the news rreport strikes up in him. A flash beneath his eyes and at the back of his brain that makes him itch for something, anything, to make the feeling, the memory and the torrent it unleashes.

They don't know where exactly Stark's son is being held but that doesn't make a difference, it just makes things take longer. He manages, eventually to find the place he's being held, and it's a little under a week when he ends up at the mouth of the cave, overheated and almost exhausted, and pretty damn unawares of what time he's in.

In the end, everyone in the base is taken out, and he extracts them safely, Anthony Stark and the other man that was with him, Yinsen he thinks it was, both. There's some thing in Stark's chest, lit up and unnerving but not as much as his laugh when Steve showed up with the shield in hand. There was something almost dark in that laugh, almost snapped, and the way he looks at him makes Steve almost feel like he shouldn't have. Makes him question his words of reassurance, eyes flickering to something in the corner of the room that makes it almost look like someone had been trying to build the Tin Man. 

"Are you alright?" Steve asks him, concerned and almost wary but it's not until Yinsen puts a hand on the other man's shoulder that the laughing stops, and Stark puts his hands up in something like defense.

"Just fine, other than losing my mind." He tells him, casual and there's nothing on his face except for the slightest flicker of dark amusement before Yinsen speaks up, not moving his hand.

"He's there," Yinsen says, almost calm and Tony moves away from his hand eyes almost glittering.

"I'll pack my bags then. We're headed where, nineteen-forties? Or the afterlife. Except where I'd bet you the contents of my pockets there isn't one so that's kind of null. Right. Packing." He smiles, and there is something broken, almost terrifying about it when he turns to look at Yinsen with a shrug. "Not so important of a week after all, is it? You're okay with Mr. America here mounting the rescue, right, should we call in one of your dead cultural heroes instead?"

"It's fine with me," Yinsen says, actual concern on his face laced with a hint of confusion at the same time that Steve says, "Captain."

"I know who you are," Tony tells him flatly as he moves to heft up one of the pieces of the Tin Man, and calls back over his shoulder. "Hand with this, Yinsen? I'm getting this big guy out so when I toss a match into this place and run there's not gonna be a scrap left. No need for it, all that jazz."

Steve moves to assist them without being asked, and Stark doesn't bother to look at him. He tries to strike up conversation again, as fruitless as it probably is, and he feels strangely out of place. "I knew your father," he says, dropping the entirety of the Tin Man besides the two pieces they had been carrying into a pile on the ground.

"He's dead." Tony tells him flatly, and Steve opens his mouth to speak again, but Tony raises a finger to shush him. "But don't worry, you were always his favorite. Yinsen, we're looking for to light this place up with. Figure someone'll notice that."

"We should be able to radio, they told me a channel-" Steve starts to say, and before he can finish Tony has interrupted him again.

"I wasn't talking to you, Uncle Sam. Appreciate the rescue, but really? We were handling it. Couple days and we'd have been home free. Now... Ah. Thank you, Yinsen. At least someone is on point here. You want to be useful? Grab that crate he found over there. We're going hiking."

The sun is beating down as they walk out into the desert, and Stark doesn't say anything else to him, but at one point Yinsen trails behind and walks beside him. "I wanted to thank you." He tells him with a small smile. "Captain America, you said? Taking up the mantle, I suppose?"

"Actually, it's a little more complicated than that." Steve tells him, and his expression darkens for a moment, but he tries to offer a faint smile. "Steve Rogers," he adds. "I'd offer you a handshake, but..."

"Ho Yinsen." He replies, with a tight little smile. "I won't press for details."

"I appreciate it." Steve tells him as he shifts the crate he's holding on his shoulder slightly, and his gaze turns forward, onto Stark's back, and he frowns, just slightly. Yinsen catches his gaze, and his expression softens somewhat.

"...I wouldn't take him too personally. He is..." Yinsen pauses, seemingly lost in thought, his expression furrowing. It's a little while before either of them speak, and it's Steve, launching a guess at the end of the sentence.

"He's been through a lot, right?" Steve asks, and Yinsen blinks as he turns to look at him. "Not to mention he doesn't seem to like me very much." He tries to sound light, and doesn't quite manage.

"That is a long story, too. One I'm not sure that I could tell, even if we had the time." He is almost apologetic, and it's only a moment before Stark stops and turns around, breaking into the conversation.

"Okay, Flag Boy, you can put that down now. Carefully. I think we're far enough away. You two can keep going, if you want to. I'll catch up, just need to take care of business." Stark tells them, and once Steve has put the crate down he moves in on it, popping the lid open.

"I still think-" Steve says, and Stark cuts him off.

"Duly noted." Stark tells him, and he gives in, after a look from Yinsen moving away as Stark sets up some sort of weapon or another, aimed into that canyon. They watch as he assembles the device, and then stands up, his face expressionless. "...actually, change of plan. I think I'm going to go radio after all. Think you two can keep an eye on this?"

"I don't think that's a good idea." Steve tells him almost carefully, taking a step forward even as Stark takes a step backwards. "We should all go. I'll carry that back, we should get going-"

"Thanks for the offer, but no. Anyway, I think I forgot something. Just be a minute." He starts walking and Steve just stares after him, watches as Yinsen moves past him and goes to touch Stark's arm. 

"What is this about?" Yinsen asks, quiet, and Steve can barely make out his voice, or Stark's when he speaks up, a moment after.

"Like I said, I forgot something." Stark shrugs, and Steve can only imagine the look Yinsen gives him that makes him speak up again, after a pause. "I want to make sure I get it all. It's kind of chancy with a shot like this."

"They can do a fly-over, after." Yinsen says, calm, and Stark just shakes his head.

"I've got to do this. Me. I'll be right back." Stark tries to move away, but Yinsen doesn't let go of his arm. He leans forward and whispers something to him, but Steve can't make it out. Whatever it is though, he turns around and goes back to the weaponry.

He watches as Stark sends the missile into the canyon, and he watches the explosion that comes of it in silence before he turns away, scoping out their surroundings. They move after, at Steve's request, and a few hours later they're found by a helicopter, and he watches as Stark embraces the man who comes out, and they exchange some banter that Steve doesn't quite understand. On the helicopter he talks to Stark's friend, and Stark himself falls asleep. He's still unconscious by the time they land, and he doesn't say a word to him when he finally does wake up. Just gives Yinsen and invitation to come home with him, that he turns down, saying he's been away from his family too long. "Rain check?" Stark asks, and Yinsen promises, and then someone is demanding Steve's attention and that is the last time he sees Tony Stark in person.

He sees him on the news, soon after his return. When he's returned home himself, gone back to something like hiding from the world, because he's less sure than ever that it's a time he should be part of. He hears the announcement he makes about how Stark Industries is going to stop making weapons. Then he sees that glowing thing, and hears something about energy, and he isn't sure what to make of it.

The destruction of Gulmira on the news passes by his attention, as do the further politics of Stark Industries. He is busy, eventually, under the guidance of Nick Fury because if there's one thing he's worse at than being in this time, than keeping all the memories from flooding back into him, it's sitting around and doing nothing.

He doesn't pay attention to pop culture, to the tabloids and news on celebrities. He catches an apology for the side effects of a prototype reactor and thinks that Stark might look worse than he did when he found him back in that cave. Stane's death doesn't catch his attention because he doesn't know who he is, and he is somewhere else, dealing with something that happened because of an attempt at replicating the Super Soldier Serum. Ends up taking over for a General Ross when his methods are found to be almost as destructive as the effected individual himself.

Tony Stark takes sick, and he is nowhere near enough to interesting for Nick Fury to reach out. It doesn't reach the news, just airship gossip and he orders the individuals back to work, passes by the room where they're holding the gamma radiated man in a glass cage with a pile of books and a cot.

It barely makes the news, by the time Tony Stark dies. Alcohol poisoning, from what the media says, and there is no real autopsy, just a lot of talk about whether it was accidental or on purpose and Steve doesn't know what to think, and doesn't put too much thought into it.

Something feels off though, even if he can't explain it, and it bothers him a lot more than he thinks it should, given the short amount of time he knew him. He walks down to the holding cell where Bruce Banner has been living for almost half a year, and stands for a moment unsure of what to say.

"Can I help you?" Bruce asks, politeness measured and probably fake and Steve doesn't move.

"I was wondering if you wanted to talk," Steve tells him, simply. "But I can go, if you'd rather."

"No, it's okay." Bruce tells him, and they're both silent for a few minutes before he speaks up. "..talking requires, well, talking." He reminds him with a forced hint of a smile.

"I'm sorry," Steve apologizes, almost flushing, and shakes his head, looking around briefly for a seat before he gives up and turns back to Bruce. "Something just feels...off. Ever since I saw the news this morning."

"You too?" Bruce asks, and their eyes meet for a brief moment, and there is something just out of reach, just at the edges of their consciousness that neither understands, and Steve nods.


End file.
